I am a senior editor at Forbes and focus mainly on the business of sports and our annual franchise valuations. I also spend a lot of my time digging into what athletes earn on and off the field of play. I've profiled a bunch of athletes that go by one name: LeBron, Shaq, Danica and others. I also head up our biennial B-School rankings, our list of America's Best Small Companies and our annual features on the Best Places for Business (metros, states and countries). I joined Forbes in 1998 after working 3 years at Financial World magazine.

America's Most Miserable Cities

Miami has local company in misery on our list: the West Palm Beach metropolitan division ranks fourth and Fort Lauderdale is seventh. Both areas have been hit hard by the housing crises.

South Florida politics have long been stained by corruption, which we factor into our list based on data from the Public Integrity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice on the number of politicians convicted of crimes. Southern Florida has had 354 public officials convicted of crimes over the past decade, which is one of the highest rates in the country on a per capita basis.

The latest trouble in the West Palm Beach area involves the mayor of Boynton Beach, Jose Rodriguez, who was suspended from his office last month by Gov. Rick Scott after Rodriguez was arrested for allegedly using his position to obstruct a child abuse probe involving his wife’s estranged daughter.

The Miami Heat brought Florida sports fans much joy when it paired James and Dwyane Wade in 2010 and the duo led the Heat to the NBA Finals. The rest of the Miami pro sports scene is pure misery, with the Miami Dolphins, Miami Marlins and Florida Panthers all among the worst teams in their respective sports last year (the Panthers have rebounded this season).

Michigan’s troubled duo of Detroit and Flint clock in at No. 2 and No. 3 among the most miserable cities. The cities have been reeling for decades due to the decline of the U.S. auto industry and in recent years have been demolishing houses to change their city landscapes. Detroit has closed schools and cut wages for government employees, while Michigan appointed an emergency manager last year to take over Flint’s budget and operations. Detroit and Flint rank No. 1 and No. 3 when it comes to violent crime, and unemployment over the past three years in both communities has also been among the worst in the U.S.

Last year’s most miserable city, Stockton, ranks No. 11 this year. Stockton got a boost as housing prices have stabilized to some degree after a 45% drop between 2006 and 2008. They also benefited from our replacement of sales tax rates with property taxes in the methodology (Stockton would have finished No. 6 under the old methodology). Stockton still has plenty of problems, though. It ranks among the country’s six worst when it comes to unemployment, foreclosures and violent crime.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.

You simply couldn’t be more wrong. Detroit is a perfect example of the failure of socialism and big-government interference in the once-greatest industry in the world-the US auto industry.

CAFE standards forced the Big-3 to make small, low-quality “cars nobody wanted” in high-cost UAW factories. Thus, the car companies were forced to make cars they NEVER would have made such as the Pinto and Vega. In order to squeeze any profit out of these slugs; the companies had to keep the lines running at any cost and the UAW used their position of power to demand greater and greater pay and benefits (This in NOT to bash the union; they did what anybody would have done given such power and believing they were working for the benefit of their members). Eventually, the costs became unsustainable and, as oil prices spiked – again due to leftist interference in the energy markets – the Big-3 strategy of making SUVs and mini-vans, exempt from CAFE as “light trucks,” collapsed giving us today’s Detroit.

The Obama administration robbed the bond- and stockholders, transferring their investment wealth to the UAW in the “auto (really, “UAW”) bailouts.”

People like you simply amaze me. We are watching socialism collapse from Detroit to Dusseldorf but; you still persist in your fantasy that “capitalism” is the problem.

The problem is cradle-to-grave socialism coupled with an entitlement attitude replacing American individualism and grotesque economic ignorance that allows the perpetrators of these crimes to be re-elected over and over again.

There is simply nothing more “greedy” than the socialist state. It failed in the USSR and, it is failing in Europe and now, in the USA.

And, don’t tell me about China. To the extend China is successful; it is because they have adopted capitalism. Indeed, Hong Kong is now ranked the most economically free place on earth. The US is ranked 10th, declining every year since Obama was inaugurated.

What brought about the collapse of the American automoble industry and the collapse of the Detroit economy was America’s love affair with the imported automobile. In 1980 only 14% of the value of goods sold in the U.S. were imported, by 2009 the value of goods sold in the U.S. reached 60%. Thru the 80′s and 90′s the imported car made up a large percentage of the value of imported goods. By 2006 and 2007 MORE THAN HALF the cars sold in the U.S. were imports. The primary factor which left the American auto industry broke and the Detroit economy in shambles was the imported car!

First. why is everything attributed to socialism? Someone farts too loudly or stinky and its socialism and lets blame Obama for providing the toilet paper.

I for one don’t have a proble with capitalism, but I sire as hell do have a problem with ULTRA-capitalism. See, unfortunately it is not enough anymore to become a milliionaire, it is now a must to become a billionaire at ANY COST even if it means screwing the little guy to the wall. If you are thirsty and I sell you a glass of water that cost me 50 cents for a buck and you happened to have two bucks on you, that is fair capitalism. If I want to stiff you and sell you the same glass of water for 2 bucks or worst yet more bucks, then you either have no bucks left or you simple die of thirst. See, this is greed which is what ultra-capitalism creates. It is part of the reason why so many politicians, Republicans and Democrats, are corrupt. This is why companies that adopted the ultra-capitalis ways (WALL STREET as a whole) almost ruined this country beyond repair. Personally, I wish the Obama administration would have not bailed anyone out and let the country take a massive dump. Sometimes you need a good case of the crappers to get rid of the bad stuff and start from scrap. Purging the system woud have been the way to go, but Obama saved the ultra-capitalists butts with his handout. Damn if you do, damn if you don’t.

What brought about the collapse of the American automoble industry and the collapse of the Detroit economy was America’s love affair with the imported automobile. In 1980 only 14% of the value of goods sold in the U.S. were imported, by 2009 the value of goods sold in the U.S. reached 60%. Thru the 80′s and 90′s the imported car made up a large percentage of the value of imported goods. By 2006 and 2007 MORE THAN HALF the cars sold in the U.S. were imports. The primary factor which left the American auto industry broke and the Detroit economy in shambles was the imported car!

Actually, “socialism” works great in Europe. You can see this in the daily lives of its citizens. They are not plagued with the multiple ills we are – bad health, low intelligence and a poor standard of living. Why do you think places like Finland, Denmark and The Netherlands rank as the happiest places on Earth?

I’m glad you think China is successful, as they work slave labor to bring you cheap crap that is destroying the labor force of the United States.

You can thank the advances of capitalism for the failures of the auto industry. We buy imported over domestic now.

By the way, Duesseldorf is the sixth best city in the world to live in.

The reason so many people purchased foreign cars in the 90′s if that the domestics were unaffordable! My daughter graduated from college in ’92 with $10,000.00 dollars to purchase her first car….she is the grand daughter of a GM retiree. She had to buy a VW Fox…..literally that is all she could find. We are talking about a brand new car.

Of course it has worked in Europe. The USA since the second world war has protected Europe-with Germany not being allowed to rebuild their military for years-they were able to build an economy that does not rely on the military. The Berlin Wall came down because of the USA-Germany didn’t accomplish that all on their own. What they did do that is great is assimilate the East Germans.

What we need to do is be much more smart about the wars in which we get involved. Spending hundreds of billions of dollars on wars which accomplish little is a huge mistake and a mistake we can no longer afford.

you are right, they live better in Europe, more humanitarian society, America needs a kind of real postcapitalism with american dream for middele class. Respect Miami ‘s worse city is not true, wrong message. Any guetto in New York or L.A. is worse, go to Detroit suburbs, go to border cities.. Miami is a peacefull city with a lot of senior enjoying the life, misery is a questions of meaning

your listing of detroit suburbs is completely false. they have some of the best suburbs in the nation, including the grosse pointes, bloomfield and birmingham. all very wealthy. also, the grosse pointes are located on the greatest boating lake in the world.

Socialism works great in Europe??? You don’t read the news do you? Everyone’s happy because they don’t have jobs and everyone gets wasted every night without a care in the world. If being poor with no future is “working” then I guess you are right.